Blood and brimstone, these two smells hung in the air of the devastated ruins that were once a great and proud city. With the exception of two creatures, every other living thing in that area had perished.

The survivors of this dismal ordeal, a young boy and a giant fly, stood across from each other. They each stared into the other's eyes as the fires around them raged on, consuming everything.

******************************************************************************

Imperial Year 4004,

1st day of The Month Of The Holy God's Ascension.

The World's End, a large trading vessel, was currently sailing across the Kharybdian Sea. This large stretch of seawater was known for being notoriously difficult to navigate due to its tempestuous waves and weather. While the Kharybdian Sea was infamous for its danger, it was also known for being the shortest possible travel route from the northern coast of the Island Nation of Asafua to the southern coast of the continent of Pangaia.

Though with the danger it presented, most sailors just chose to go around it. Any sailor that even considered taking that route could only be called a fool. Unfortunately for the passengers of the World's End, that was exactly what their captain was, a fool that was more concerned with how quickly he could deliver his cargo than the safety of his own passengers.

Though Captain Okoto was a fool he was a very skilled fool. As a sailor that had spent nearly fifty years on the sea, the rough and tumultuous waves were not an issue for him in the slightest. He had made sure to train his men well in anticipation of this day for this would be his first voyage across the Kharybdian.

If this voyage was successful, he would be able to transport both cargo and people faster than any other ship in this part of the world. His name would become widespread and he would become wealthier than he could have possibly imagined. If the voyage was successful that is.

Unfortunately for our good captain, his greed had blinded him to a rather obvious fact about the Kharybdian. It was a nest of monsters.

Captain Okoto could be forgiven in ignoring that fact since it had been quite a few centuries since anyone had traversed the Kharybdian, or at least survived to tell about it. Due to this, there were some people who dismissed the stories of monsters as simple tales and Okoto was one of those people. As a consequence of ignoring those stories, he would pay dearly for it.

The creature had emerged suddenly from the deep sea. The first sighting of it was made by a sailor that saw a pink appendage slowly rise out of the water and grab onto the mast of the ship. The sailor screamed and in doing so drew attention from everyone on the ship. It wasn't until more and more people came out to look at it that more appendages shot out from the water. It was almost as if the beast was waiting for an audience to terrify.

The ship rocked and shook as the creature latched itself onto it. Now, the passengers could make out what it was. In the coastal regions of Asafua, it was a rather common meal, though the ones there were much smaller. A good chunk of the protein ingested by the coastal Asafuans was from that creature. Yes, the beast wrapping its arms around the ship was a giant octopus.

Though they were caught off guard at first, the sailors quickly went on the attack. Most of them raised their swords and guns against the octopus while the rest loaded the two cannons on the ship and fired at the octopus.

The octopus grabbed the incoming cannon fire with its arms and crushed it easily. The resulting explosion didn't so much as faze it. The sailors that tried to attack it soon realized how powerless they were. Their swords could barely scratch the octopus' flesh and even when they did, they would just sink into the flesh and remain there, unable to be removed. Once their swords were stuck, the octopus would grab the sailors, crush them and callously throw them into the sea. The sailors' gunfire did not fare much better against the beast. Unlike the cannonfire and the swords, it didn't pay any attention to the gunfire. It probably didn't even register as pain to it. The sailors could not be blamed for such a weak and pitiful display against the beast as the weapons and training they had received were given with pirates in mind, not rampaging sea creatures.

Even with how hopeless the situation looked, the sailors continued to fight. Their determination came from not how desperately they wanted to live but by how angry the owner of their cargo would be.

**************************************************

Around the same time, the sailors were desperately fighting, a young man had just been woken from his nap. The scream of the first sailor to notice the beast had not woken him and although the loud cannonfire had woken him, he ignored it and went back to sleep. The only reason he was awake now was because the captain had noticed him as he was going to join his crew members in the fight.

The captain was hellbent on joining the fight but he was put off by the ridiculous sight he was seeing. The young man's dark skin made it clear to him that he was Asafuan but he did not resemble any of the usual passengers he was used to transporting. Captain Okoto's usual passengers were from the coastal areas and were often very poor. This young man on the other hand was dressed like the waiter of some exotic, fancy restaurant and what's more he was laying on top of a bag much larger than he was. The appearance of the young man coupled with the fact that he was sleeping through the entire ordeal, stopped the good captain in his tracks and made him shake the young man awake.

The young man slowly opened his eyes and lazily stood up. After he had rubbed his eyes and yawned, the young man noticed his red tie was out of place. As a man that greatly valued his appearance, he quickly made sure to place it under his black vest. All of this took place before he even acknowledged the existence of Captain Okoto squatting next to him.

"Oh, hi captain. Are we there yet?"

The old captain was dumbfounded at how ridiculous this entire situation was. He stared at the young man with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds before answering his question. Captain Okoto stood up and cleared his throat.

"Sorry for waking ya but we're under attack by a giant octopus."

After speaking those words, the captain could have sworn he saw something sparkle in the young man's crimson eyes.

"A giant octopus...I could make some pretty good calamari out of it."

At this moment, the good captain was even more stupefied by how lightly this young man was taking the situation. He wanted to slap himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. The only reason he didn't do it was because the young man slapped himself first.

"I'm such an idiot! Calamari is squid...Eh, fried octopus is just as good."

The young man ran off to where the fighting and screaming were loudest. Once there, he was astonished by what he saw.

"I didn't think it would be this big! Ooh, I'm getting excited just thinking of how it's going to taste."

The young man smiled and raised his right arm. He pointed his index finger at the octopus and grabbed his right arm with his left.

"Okay, one shot should do."

The young man's finger began to tremble, then something shot through it. Taking off at incredible speed, it ripped through the young man's flesh. What the young man had shot was the bone of his index finger. He had separated the bone of his finger from the rest of his skeleton and launched it at the octopus. The entire process was rather violent and incredibly painful but over years of using this technique, he had slowly begun to get used to the pain.

The 'bullet' pierced through the octopus' eye and went through the other side of its head. It died instantly.

When the young man took off, Captain Okoto followed him and arrived just in time to see what he had done.

"Hey captain, do you know how many stories there are of monsters on the Kharybdian?"

The young man turned to look at the captain. He easily towered over the short captain and this together with the young man's frown, greatly intimidated Captain Okoto.

"A veteran sailor such as yourself should have heard so many by now. Yet, you still decided to travel across it, endangering your crew and passengers in the process."

He squatted so that he and the captain were on the same eye level. By now, the captain was absolutely mortified. Sweat formed and fell from his pores, drenching his clothes in sweat.

"You’re a real piece of work, you know that...but you know what, that's fine."

He stood up and smiled. For the captain, the young man's smile was somehow more terrifying.

"Since we're both privy to each other's secrets, there's no reason to speak on them. Right?"

The young man placed his right index finger over his mouth. By doing so, the captain was able to clearly see the young man's flesh turning and shifting in order to heal his injury.

Captain Okoto nodded his head rapidly to ensure the young man knew that he had no intention of reporting on his strange abilities.

The young man walked off to take a closer look at the octopus.

"Stay back, the beast could still be alive!"

One of the sailors warned him to stay away from the beast but the young man simply flashed him a smile and walked on ahead.

He took out one of the swords embedded in the octopus' flesh and with a single slice, chopped off its arm. Placing the arm over his shoulder, he walked back to where he left his bag. All the people present could only watch in shock as he did this.

Setting the arm down on the floor of the ship, the young man took out a chopping board, knives, a sauce pan, a gourd full of oil, flour and various spices and seasonings. He carefully cut the octopus into smaller pieces and set it aside in a bowl. Next, he took out two large leaves. The first leaf was bright red and was known as the 'makoma' herb or heart herb in the Asafuan tongue. The name came from its hear-tlike appearance and its red color. The heart herb was known for being incredibly spicy, to the point that there have been and still are reports of it causing extreme heartburn and pain from mere tastes of it.

The second leaf was bright blue and was known as the 'nye yaw', meaning no pain. It was named for its pain relieving properties and sweet taste.

He placed the two leaves into a small earthenware bowl and grinded them using a pot grinder. Following that, he rubbed the cut octopus with the grinded herbs and sprinkled salt on them. Next, he rubbed them in flour until they were coated in a thin layer of flour.

The young man continued by bringing out a large red stone attached to the underside of a metal stand. He touched the stone and it began to glow. Then he placed his sauce pan over it and poured the oil into the saucepan.

Soon the oil had heated up. After carefully placing the octopus into the oil, he waited patiently until it shifted from its original vibrant pink to a beautiful golden brown.

The wonderful aroma from his cooking spread throughout the ship, enticing all that smelled it to draw close.

The young man placed the fried octopus into a sieve on top of a small bowl for the excess oil to drain. With his eyes closed and his hands clasped together, the young man delivered a short prayer. Then he picked a small piece of the fried octopus and placed it in his mouth. Instantly, the young man's sense of taste was assaulted by the wonderful blend of spice and sweet.

"Just like I thought, the nye yaw perfectly counters the excessive spice of the makoma."

Suddenly, he felt the presence of many people around him. He turned around and saw both crew and passengers staring at his food. It would have been easy to just ignore them and shoo them off, after all, he was the one that killed the beast and cooked it. But that was not the kind of man he was. The only thing he enjoyed more than cooking and eating was for other people to eat the food he cooked.

The young man sighed, then smiled.

"Help yourselves."

He stood up as the people unceremoniously gorged themselves on his rightfully earned food. As he walked back to the octopus, he pulled up his sleeves.

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"Don't worry big guy, I'll make sure you don't go to waste."

**************************************************

Thankfully, after the incident with the giant octopus, the crew and passengers of The World's End did not have any other encounters with the monsters of the Kharybdian.

Three days later, they arrived safely in Osukese, a port town built over a hundred years ago by people from Asafua migrating into Pangaea. The town was built into and formed around a large hill close to the coast. Many of the houses there were built from stones and had bright orange roofs. The town had a homely and comfortable feel to it. This combined with the pleasant sea breeze that blew throughout all year long and the delicious seafood dishes the town was known for made it a very popular tourist destination.

"Ya sure ya don't need our help carrying that bag for ya?"

As the young man stepped off the ship, some of the crew members offered to carry his bag for him. After saving their lives and letting them eat the food he cooked, the young man had gained their respect and admiration.

"Thanks but I'm good. It was great meeting you though, goodbye for now."

The young man waved goodbye to them and was about to leave when he remembered something.

"Oh, make sure your captain doesn't do something like that again!"

"Don't worry, we'll make sure he doesn't!"

The young man turned away from the ship and went on his merry way.

**************************************************

'It’s a new town on an entirely different continent. I wonder how the food here tastes like....Though I suppose I should leave the taste testing for after I find a place to stay.'

The young man set out for an inn to stay. He noticed that the houses and buildings were larger and more clustered together the farther away from the port they were so he focused his efforts there.

He walked until he came to a town square a little high up on the hill. In the distance, the young man noticed a rather large building. Just like most of the other buildings, it was built from stone and its roof was bright orange. Hanging over the door of the building was a wooden sign with the engraving of a bed in it.

'That has to be an inn.'

Continuing on, the young man approached the inn with a steady pace but stopped in his tracks after he observed something peculiar. Not too far from the inn was a marble fountain constantly spewing out water. Upon finding the inn, the young man had already seen it but did not pay much attention to it. But after seeing what was on the other side, he could not help but to stare at it.

What he saw was a knight in ebony armor darker than the night sky, sitting lazily on a bench next to the fountain. A red scarf dangled from their neck and their helm had been designed to look like a human skull. Curiously, there was an eyepatch over the knight's helm, where the right eye would be.

With that in mind, there were two questions turning over within the young man's mind.

'Why is the eyepatch over the helm and why is everyone ignoring this like it's normal?'

It was a normal question to have as the knight's appearance greatly contrasted with the homely and idyllic feel of the town. The answer to this question was very simple, the townsfolk had just gotten used to it.

Over two weeks ago, the knight had arrived in town. Initially, the townsfolk were very wary of them and as such kept their distance. However, during those two weeks, the knight had kept to themselves and mostly just roamed the town square. It became such a common sight for the townsfolk that the children would even play with them.

'...Well, I guess it doesn't really matter.'

Deciding that it was none of his business, the young man chose to just ignore it and continue on his way. He would not make it far as he would be distracted by a low, loud rumbling.

'The hell was that?'

His eyes scanned the town square for the source of the sound until they fell on the knight once again.

'There’s no way that's it, right?'

He moved closer and as he did so, he heard an even louder rumble. After hearing the sound again and confirming what it was, he covered his mouth. It was taking everything from him to not laugh out loud.

Turning around, the young man walked off to a nearby stall. The owner of the stall was a gruff looking man with a large smile.

"How much for one of your fish skewers?"

"That would be eight Asafuan Pesewas."

"Asafuan currency is still good here?"

"Yep, this town was built by Asafuans after all."

The gruff looking man leaned in and whispered in a quiet voice.

"Just between you and me, most of the stores here prefer the Pesewas anyway."

"Oh, that’s good to know."

Reaching into the unusually large bag on his back, the young man pulled out a small sack filled with small, copper coins, each with an engraving of a spider on the front side and an engraving of an old man and woman on the back. He handed the man eighty of them.

"I'll be taking ten of your skewers."

"Here you go. Pleasure doing business."

'Looks like my money is still good here, I'll probably have to exchange it later but for now this is fine.'

The young man placed five skewers in each hand and walked back to the bench. Once he was there, the knight moved for the first time since the young man had arrived in the city.

"Here, it's yours if you want."

Wary, the knight walked around the young man for a while before swiftly snatching the five skewers in his left hand. They both sat down and the young man offered a short prayer before taking a bite of his food.

'Pretty good, could be spicier though.'

Turning over to his eating partner, the young man saw the knight looking over their food. They tried to jam it in their mouth but quickly realized that their helm was in the way.

A small giggle escaped the young man's lips. In response, the knight turned to stare at the young man. It would seem the knight had taken offense to that.

"My bad."

The knight handed the skewers back to the young man. Then they removed their helm, revealing their appearance in the process.

The knight had short red hair that extended just a little bit past her neck. A thin scar extended from the left side of her pale-white neck to slightly above her mouth on her left cheek. She also had one green eye as she wore an eyepatch over her right eye.

'If you're going to wear an eyepatch underneath the helm, why even bother wearing one over it?'

Once she had removed the helm, a large, goofy smile spread across her freckled face. She put her hand out to the young man and he handed her back the skewers.

Tiny drops of drool slipped past her mouth as she shoved an entire skewer in her mouth. When she removed it from her mouth, there wasn't a single piece of fish left on the stick.

As she swallowed the food, tears of joy streaked past her face. The exaggerated way she ate her food, brought up some long forgotten memories within the young man. While he continued to watch her eat, the young man felt a wave of both joy and sadness wash over him.

The moment she finished eating, she began to greedily eye the skewers in the young man's hand. Sighing, the young man easily handed them over as he was not that hungry and he felt that the food deserved to be someone that enjoyed it as much as she did.

Standing up, the young man was heading off to the inn, when he suddenly felt a tug on his bag. Looking back, he saw the knight hurriedly chew and swallow her food.

"Apologies, but as a death knight I cannot permit you to leave until I learn your name and thank you for your gift!"

'A death knight? That sounds like a rather disturbing career.'

After learning what the young lady considered her vocation to be, the young man had second thoughts about interacting with her but he ignored those thoughts as she didn't feel as malicious as her career would suggest.

"I see. Well, my name is Nyameye and yours is?"

"Fionn, sir. I swear I will pay you back for this gift one day!"

"It’s not really a big deal. I didn't do it because of some reward, I did it because I wanted to."

Continuing on, Nyameye finally headed for the inn. Once inside, he realized that it was a very lively place. The mess hall to his left was filled with people eating and chatting amongst themselves. There were so many people there that he wondered if there would be any vacancies left in the inn.

Looking over to his right, Nyameye saw a rather tall lady wearing a simple, blue dress. From the moment his gaze fell upon her, he was fixated, for the lady's pure white skin had patches of black scattered across it. Two white horns extended upwards from her head and her nose was a bright, vibrant pink. Yes, the lady before him was a beastfolk, specifically a cow beastfolk.

"Oh, hello there. You're not from around here so you must be looking for a place to stay, am I right?"

"You could tell?"

"But of course, I've been here my whole life. I pride myself on knowing everyone that lives in town!"

As she said this, she puffed out her chest in a boasting manner.

"I-I see. Do you have any rooms free?"

"All our rooms are currently available for use."

"All of them? But what about those guys over there?"

"This inn doubles as a restaurant and those people are town residents. This inn is more of a gathering spot for the town than an actual inn."

Nyameye could not help but notice the frustration she felt as she told him this.

"I get that, but Osukese is a pretty popular tourist destination and yet there's no one here?"

"Most tourists stay in inns that are higher up on the hill as they are more...put together."

"Ah, that makes sense. Though I doubt that I have the money for that so this place will have to do...Um, no offense of course."

A hearty laugh echoed through the inn after he spoke.

"No offense taken! It's nice to get a customer that's actually staying here."

She looked over to the mess hall as she spoke. The people there flinched and shied away from her gaze for they could feel the venom that emanated from her words.

"My name's Maribelle but everyone calls me Ms. Belle. It's eighty Pesewas per night."

"Good to meet you Ms. Belle. I'm Nyameye, I'm not sure how long I'll be staying here, so I'll just be paying for this night."

Nyameye handed her a sizable number of the copper coins and she handed him a red key.

"The color of the keys match the color of their doors so you shouldn't have any trouble finding your room."

While he left for his room upstairs. Ms. Belle continued to watch him as he walked up the stairs.

Walking up the stairs right in front of the counter, it wouldn't take long for Nyameye to find the red door and soon he was lying comfortably on a puffy bed. The moment he laid on it, Nyameye found out that he was much more tired than he realized. He wanted to organize his thoughts but found it difficult to do so as he drifted in and out of sleep.

'Osukese...it's a port town so they're bound to have some great seafood dishes here...I want to try them all...but I should focus on the main reason I'm here...Beelzebub...if you really are on this continent...then I'm going to find you...and when I do...then....I'll....'

Struggling to maintain his train of thought due to just how exhausted he was, Nyameye finally drifted into the world of dreams.

**************************************************

A giant fly, a burning city and the screams of countless people crying out in pain. These images kept repeating over and over in Nyameye's head as he slept. He had seen this same dream for so long that he had forgotten what it was like to have any other dreams.

While looking over all that chaos, he saw his younger self crying and desperately trying to make sense of everything. Nyameye wanted to reach out to him and comfort him. He wanted to tell him that everything would be okay, even if he himself didn't believe that.

But no matter how much he screamed, shouted and stretched forth his hands, his younger self just kept ignoring him.

**************************************************

Nyameye woke up with a start, a strange sound had awoken him. He looked through the window of the inn and saw the moon, full and beautiful, high up in the night sky.

'Guess I was more tired than I thought, I should probably get some more sleep.'

Immediately after finishing that thought, he heard that same sound again. But now that he was awake, he could better comprehend what it was. It was feral, beastlike and filled with strength. He instantly knew that it was some kind of monster and he also knew that a monster in town meant trouble.

Nyameye jumped out of the window and landed right in front of the inn. Following the sound of the monster, he ran to help whoever might be in danger from the beast.

Once there, he was shocked to discover what he found. Right there, in an empty and deserted alleyway was a giant wolf with fur darker than the darkest black and a chain attached to a collar around its neck. Facing off against that giant wolf was Fionn, the same death knight he met earlier. Even stranger was that there were three children cowering in fear behind her.

Though he was a bit surprised by the situation, he quickly got over it and focused on the fight in front of him. Nyameye took aim at the fearsome beast and attacked.

'Phalange Bullet.'

Immediately, the bones of two of his right fingers shot towards the wolf. He hoped to kill it before it noticed him but that soon proved to be wishful thinking.

Despite towering over many of the houses, the wolf leapt into the air as the 'bone bullets' whizzed past and struck the wall of a nearby building.

It landed back on the ground with a loud thud. The wolf's eyes, large and purple, locked onto Nyameye. Saliva spilled forth from its mouth and its hot breath terrified the children even more.

Nyameye and Fionn exchanged looks and nodded their heads for they both realized this wasn't a fight they could easily win alone.

Chapter 2:Nyameye & Fionn